Colloquial Indonesian: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Indonesian as it is written and spoken today.
Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Indonesian in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
Colloquial Indonesian is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice.
Key features include:
A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar
An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises
Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations
Helpful cultural points explaining the customs and features of life in Indonesian
An overview of the sounds of Indonesian
Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Indonesian is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Indonesian..
Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.
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Study the dialogue in Situation 1 below, noting particularly the words in bold. You may need some help. Look at the English translation provided and the vocabulary.
Situation 1 (Audio 1: 7)
Nama saya John Stanton
John Stanton, who can speak Indonesian, is invited to a social gathering in Jakarta; he is sitting with a group of people that he does not know. He decides to start up a conversation
JS
Selamat malam. Nama saya John Stanton. Saya orang Inggeris. Saya pegawai bank.
AS
Selamat malam. Nama saya Asmara. Saya sekretaris.
JS
Maaf, anda siapa?
SM
Saya Samsudin. Saya manajer toko pakaian.
JS
Dan … ini isteri anda?
SM
Ya, ini isteri saya, Aminah. Dia bekerja di kantor.
JS
Good evening. My name is John Stanton. I am an English person (lit.). I am a bank employee.
AS
Good evening. My name is Asmara. I am a secretary.
JS
Excuse me, who are you?
SM
I am Samsudin. I am a manager of a clothes shop.
JS
And … this is your wife?
SM
Yes, this is my wife, Aminah. She works in an office.
selamant malam
good evening
pakaian
clothes/clothing
nama
name
ini
this
saya
I/me/my
isteri
wife
orang
person
sekretaris
secretary
pegawai
employee
Inggeris
English/England
maaf
excuse me/sorry
dia
he/him/his
anda
you
di
at/in
siapa
who
kantor
office
toko
shop
bekerja
to work
dan
and
Grammar 1
Formal pronouns
Formal pronouns are used by people who do not know each other very well. The same form is used for both personal and possessive pronouns.
saya
I, my
saudara
you, your
anda
you, your
dia
he/she, his/her
kami
we, our (excluding the person spoken to)
kita
we, our (including the person spoken to/you and me)
mereka
they, their
For example:
saya
(I)
Saya murid.
I am a student
saya
(my)
Ini rumah saya.
This is my house
anda
(you)
Anda sekretaris.
You are a secretary
anda
(your)
Itu toko anda.
That is your shop
For informal pronouns, seeLesson 3, Grammar 1.
Noun predicate
Subject
Noun pred.
Subject
Art.
Noun pred.
Ini
Asmara
This
is
Asmara
Dia
sekretaris
she
is
a
secretary
Itu
Samsudin
That
is
Samsudin
In a sentence as above where the predicate is a noun, Indonesian does not always need an equivalent of the linking word ‘to be’. Also note that there is no Indonesian equivalent of the English indefinite article ‘a’. The use of the indefinite article is optional in Indonesian.
Compound nouns
A noun can be qualified by (an)other noun(s) to produce a compound noun. In English the qualifiers come befor...
